Trial Opens In Condo Slaying

Thomas Lowery lost his life trying to keep young people out of the Margate Village condominiums.

To Lowery and other condo residents, young meant anyone under age 55. John Maggio disagreed with them.

And, according to both prosecution and defense attorneys in Maggio`s first-degree murder trial that began Wednesday, the disagreement was settled with a gun.

Both sides also agreed that Maggio owned the gun, a .357 Magnum, and that Lowery died from one shot to the chest on Jan. 31 last year, after quarreling for most of the day with Maggio.

Prosecutor Charles Morton said in his opening statement that the argument stemmed from the condo association`s ``55-plus`` policy, which the group had just enacted, requiring that one resident of every condo be 55 or older.

Maggio himself was 53 at the time, living in a house about a mile away from the condo. But he had a new tenant lined up for his condo who was only 41. Lowery, who was 66 and the association president, told Maggio his prospective tenant was too young.

The two men argued all day. Maggio left the condo office that afternoon telling Lowery, ``I will show you,`` Morton said.

About 4 p.m. Maggio came back, went into Lowery`s office and shot him once through the chest with his gun, Morton said. In the parking lot, Maggio met someone from the condo whom he recognized and said, ``You know where I live,`` Morton said.

Then Maggio drove to his Margate home, which was about a three-minute drive from the condo.

``There he sat, sipping a drink until the police came,`` Morton said.

Maggio`s attorney, Thomas E. Cazel, said his client was drinking heavily that day and had been a heavy drinker for years, sometimes downing a fifth of liquor a day.

``He had a lot to drink that afternoon,`` Cazel said. ``John Maggio does not recall a lot of what happened that afternoon.``

Cazel did not deny that the gun owned by Maggio killed Lowery. ``I`m not contesting that,`` Cazel said. ``A gun discharged, a gun in the possession of John Maggio.``

But he said Maggio was drinking so much then that his hands shook constantly, making it hard to believe he could have killed Lowery with one shot at a distance of 10-12 feet.

The shooting could have been an accident, Cazel said, basing most of his argument on a bullet fragment found on the floor.

Margate police Detective Gregory Cosmar testified that he and other police officials ``were pretty confident that it was not an accidental shooting.``

Cazel said the fragment, which differed from those found in Lowery after the autopsy, suggested the bullet hit something else before entering the victim`s body. ``A ricochet with one shot does not indicate murder,`` Cazel said.

Dr. Raoul Vila, the associate medical examiner who did the autopsy, said the bullet could have shattered when hitting a bone in Lowery`s chest.